Composting; easy as dirt

Composting; easy as dirt

Monday, December 8, 2008

By Donna Walden Composting is not a new concept for me. My mother always had a bin under the kitchen sink for putting organic wastes. She grew an organic garden each year and had a compost pile but when I was growing up but I couldn’t have been less interested in gardening. I didn’t like getting dirt under my fingernails. My aim? Move to the big city, have a career, and have some fun! Eventually, I went full circle and found myself back in the country. Then for years, I contemplated a compost pile, but didn’t do it because I over analyzed it and thought it would be hard. So why would a city girl like me decide to compost? Because it’s good for the environment and why not? Now days a woman can compost and still have her polished nails. Why Compost? Composting is good for the environment. It reduces the amount of toxic waste from landfills caused by organic matter mingling with inorganic matter creating smelly toxic gases that could wipe out the planet. We also have a huge planetary problem with top soil depletion and composting helps reenergize the soil. It’s so easy to do that everyone ought to be doing it. Common myths about composting So why don’t more people compost? What are some of the perceived drawbacks about composting? People think that composting stinks but if done properly, a compost pile does not stink. People think it’s complicated, but false again, it’s relatively easy. If left alone, nature composts automatically. For example, the leaves that fall off the trees eventually decompose back into the earth. You can throw all your organic matter into a pile and eventually you will get soil no mater how inexperienced you are. Even city folks can compost. If you live in an apartment or do not have access to a garden or outside space, you can use a Bokashi system or worm farm to deal with all your kitchen waste. The Effective Micro-organism “EM Bokashi” system is an airless system that uses bacteria that thrive without air to ferment the material. The best thing about the EM Bokashi is that it doesn’t smell and can be placed in the kitchen or some other warm part of your house or apartment. Well proven in many countries, more than 3 million households in Korea use this system to deal with their kitchen wastes. The by-product is a liquid that gathers in the bottom bucket that can be diluted and used as organic liquid fertilizer for house or garden plants. For more information about EM Bokashi, see www.livingsoil.co.uk or www.emtechnologynetwork.org. Case Study I wanted to compost for a long time. When I lived in San Diego County on 3 acres with a manicured lawn, pool, and avocado grove, we weekly tossed 5-6 large garbage bags of grass and plant clippings. We had a vegetable garden where we grew organic tomatoes, artichokes, peppers, and asparagus. It irked me that we paid for fertilizer for our grounds and tossed out all the organic matter that could be put back into the soil. However, I was convinced that it was hard and had been told that I might start a fire by composting wrong. (Our county was susceptible to wildfires and there were two devastating fires in 5 years.) When we moved to Northern Nevada, I was determined to compost. I wanted to recycle our organic materials and I wanted to create good soil for planting. So, I purchased a simple book, “Composting, An Easy Household Guide,” by Nicky Scott and I did it. I chose the pallet method where you tie together eight pallets into two squares and I began to put in organic matter. But where was I to get green waste? I live on two acres of unmanicured land and the soil makeup is sagebrush and sand, not great soil for growing things. It needs treatment. So the hunt began for stuff to fill the two boxes. My neighbor does have a manicured lawn and was more than happy to give me his grass clippings. I’m lucky to live in a rural community and some of my friends own horses, so I don’t have to pay for manure; I just bring my shovel and a smile. Much to my children’s chagrin, we collected fallen leaves from parks and school lots so Voila; I had my materials. I chose the hot heap method because you can kill off all the weed seeds and any bacteria that may have come from your garbage wastes. I layered them just as the book said and waited for a hot heap. My pile wasn’t generating heat like it was supposed to and that’s where Craig Witt and Full Circle Compost comes in. Craig is the master at creating good fertile soil through composting and he most graciously shares advice with novices like me. He told me that I wasn’t producing heat because there wasn’t enough moisture in my heap. I found out that there were a few other major problems with my method. I had put a pallet under my heap because I thought keeping it off the ground in a cold climate would be good. Wrong! By lifting it off the ground, I was enabling the cold wind to go under it. Craig informed me that it would remain warmer if I left it on the ground. Being on the ground would enable worms to get into it too. So with a few strategic errors in my science project, I may not reach my goal of growing dirt in 6 months. The good news is that no matter what, eventually I will get dirt for my garden or greenhouse or whatever I need it for. With Craig’s help, I can purchase worms to accelerate the process or get some of his premium soil to mix into my dirt. My neighbors all know Craig and swear by his soil. Easy as Dirt So how can you compost? It’s easy as dirt. Get a plastic or metal container with a lid. Collect all your organic matter, raw fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds (including the filter), egg shells, plant clippings in one container. Find another container for all your paper goods including cardboard, paper bags, and paper towels; but do not use anything that’s plastic coated like cereal boxes, etc. (Some people compost toilet paper but you will need a very hot heap to kill the bacteria!.) Choose a method and go at it. Once a week, layer your carbon (paper) and organic matter into the pile. It’s good to turn the pile now and again (I do mine about every 6 weeks). You can purchase tumblers, green cone digesters, worm farms and composting systems for beginners or go online and research the technique that works best for you. It’s good to use manure but do not use dog, cat, or human feces. It’s always good to know an expert such as Craig Witt at Full Circle Compost, but if not go online to sites such as www.fullcirclecompost.com, www.howtocompost.org, www.earth911.org, or www.epa.gov/compost/ for information and advice. In summary, I call composting my science project because I’m learning on the fly but it feels good knowing that I’m finally doing something with the organic wastes that we all produce daily. After visiting friends in San Diego County and sitting down to a breakfast feast of fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs, grapefruit, avocados, and coffee, I suggested that they should compost. The one breakfast meal produced a grocery bag of organic matter and “Kenny” was a gardening enthusiast. We walked outside of their one acre beautifully terraced hilltop home and found a perfect spot for his compost pile. I urge anybody reading this article to consider the merits of composting and take a chance. It’s a small gift that we can offer to help replenish our planet.

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